Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The Wiggle Room

Rarely is the question asked, how is our university students learning?

True or False? The theory of anthropogenic climate change attributes the greenhouse effect to the unregulated proliferation of green houses.

On the final exam, nine out of twenty students in the upper-division university labour and the environment course answered "true."

So far this semester, I've had six requests for reconsideration of grades. One student was "frustrated" that she only got a B- on her paper instead of an A because she hadn't gotten a B- since first year and her writing has improved since then. She pointed out that if I just set aside what I knew about the topic and "kept an open mind" using her definition of key terms, her paper made sense.

Another student asked for an A- instead of a B+ because he rarely got A's. A third student was upset that he got a B- instead of a B because his low grade point average meant he had to get all B's in the last three semesters to be eligible to graduate. He thought with a small wiggle his B- could become a B.

Rarely is the question asked, do they care about their grades or do they care about learning something about the subject?